Entertainment residuals are complex, but my residuals chart summarizes them in just a page or two using color coding. If you deal with residuals, you'll want to click for a copy. It's used throughout the industry, and The Hollywood Reporter and Backstage loved it. The chart works best as a reminder of the formulas for those who already know them or who are studying the text of the union agreements. To really learn the subject, you'll need the residuals book below.
Entertainment Residuals: A Full Color Guide
This residuals book uses color coding to describe residuals, the complex union reuse/royalty payments that are specific to the entertainment industry. The book explains residuals from the ground up, yet delves deeply into the details: the formulas, sideletters, international issues, economic facts, history, policy debates and more. The 2015 interim edition is available here, but please note that it is a 200-page unofficial edition with many tbd's (but also much content). I have been using it with my students at Southwestern and USC law schools for several years.
Residuals Merchandise
People told me the residuals chart was a work of art and I figured that meant it was too pretty not to wear. That's why you can get residuals t-shirts, coffee mugs, keychains and even a men's tie at CafePress and Zazzle. Silly but fun, they're the perfect gift for anyone who works with these mind-numbing formulas day in and day out. (Currently they feature a pre-2014 version of the chart.)
Rutgers Fellowship
In July 2019, in recognition and furtherance of my work on residuals I was appointed as a non-resident Rutgers research fellow by the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing of the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.
In the Dictionary
Check out the usage examples from the definitive Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Articles, Media Appearances and Presentations
My articles, media appearances and presentations regarding guild negotiations, strikes or stalemates often discuss residuals. And sometimes I offer a deeper dive into residuals. Those articles, appearances and presentations include:
October 2023: In Media Res (residuals explainer)
Unknown date (2020): Merriam-Webster dictionary (usage examples above for residual; pickup from The Hollywood Reporter)
June 23, 2020: Towards an Early History of Entertainment Residuals, 1933-60, Beyster Symposium, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (videoconference) (presenter)
Nov. 17, 2019: Showbiz Sandbox podcast (union/guild streaming residuals issues)
June 24, 2019: Profit Sharing in Hollywood, Beyster Symposium, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (La Jolla) (presenter)
June 21, 2018: Green Hasson Janks podcast (residuals basics)
October 1, 2015: Digital Production Buzz (IATSE residuals deal)
May 2013: VideoAge (residuals explainer)
March 29, 2011: Back Stage’s Espresso Blog (Netflix residuals)
September 7, 2010: Back Stage magazine’s Espresso Blog (residuals formulas applicable to different online video services)
July 1, 2010: Actors Reporter podcast (residuals chart)
April 17, 2010: BizMediaLaw blog (release of residuals summary chart)
April 1, 2010: Digital Production Buzz podcast (residuals summary chart), Back Stage magazine (same)
March 30, 2010: Back Stage magazine’s Espresso blog (the chart)
March 26, 2010: ACTORSandCREW blog/newsletter (the chart)
March 25, 2010: Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Business blog (the chart)
July 24, 2009: Hollywood Reporter (article by JLH regarding revising the guild residuals system)
November 5, 2007: KCRW radio show Which Way LA? (the importance of both DVDs and new media as sources for writers' residuals)
